Postdoc-Picobirnaviruses in Human Virome

A postdoctoral position is available in the lab of Dr. David Wang at Washington University in St. Louis.  The position requires creativity, independence and willingness to work on an “out of the box” project. Picobirnaviruses (PBV)s are small double-stranded RNA viruses first discovered in human stool specimens that have been largely ignored by the scientific community. PBVs are highly prevalent and abundant in human enteric viromes and have been associated with multiple human disease.  While they have been assumed to infect human and other vertebrate hosts for over 30 years, we have generated significant evidence that PBVs actually are the 3rd known group of RNA bacteriophages rather than eukaryotic viruses (e.g. Krishnamurthy et al, Virology 2018; Gan and Wang, PNAS 2023). Projects will focus on defining the interactions of PBVs with their bacterial hosts both in vitro and in vivo in gnotobiotic mouse models and defining their impact on the microbiome and human health.  Applicants must be comfortable working with a wide range of experimental approaches: NGS, bioinformatics, biochemistry, genetic screens, virological and bacteriological methods,

Position requires a PhD in Microbiology, Virology, Molecular Biology or closely related field.